Comments on: How I became a walking hot spot

CNET News reporter Daniel Terdiman arrived in Aspen with an iPhone with no battery life. He used Verizon's MiFi 2200 to create a walking Wi-Fi hot-spot for an iPod Touch.

[sythara]

iPod Touch + Verizon MiFi = No ATT contract and an actual coverage area thats good.

[TechnoMan475392]

iPod Touch + MiFi = 4 hours of unplugged 3G time. That's worse than an iPhone (esp. 3GS), and no matter how great coverage is, I need to know that my coverage is good by having a device that can use it without dying on my 1/6 through the day.

[zmjman08]

@TechnoMan
You use your ipod touch 24 hours a day?

[japolk]

I believe the reason it thought you were in Virginia was because your mifi has a Virginia area code. Apparently these devices have their own cell numbers (like your regular cell phone). It is similar to when you call a person next door from your land line to their cell and get long distance charges because they have an out-of-state cell phone number.

[Regulator7]

Regarding showing up in Virginia.... From my home DSL (Verizon), I've noticed that location-specific ads always show up as 'thinking' I'm somewhere in the middle of Ohio. I live in the middle of Illinois, many hundreds of miles away from central Ohio. I assume it's because of how Verizon is routing the traffic to/from their network to the Internet.

I would *guess* that you're seeing the same sort of anomaly with the MiFi. You may be in Colorado, but the traffic you're creating/receiving from the Internet may be routed to/from somewhere in Virginia, and so that's where external websites think your traffic is coming from.

[pjscullion]

I've seen this before. It's possible that the location-finder through EVDO doesn't work as well as you would expect a GPS to... sometimes I find myself in Maryland or Virginia, even though I'm actually in Atlanta.

If your signal was coming from a tower located somewhere else, wouldn't the device show up on that part of the system instead of a local one? I would think, for example, that if your mobile hot-spot was actually getting its information from a tower a hundred miles away it wouldn't register on a local switch until that switch or device reconnects.

And I have to say, way to use your iPod! I have an 8gb first-gen, and I love the thing to death. It's taken the place of my giant 17" laptop, and I use the laptop as storage space and as a TV to put me to sleep, because I like the bigger screen while I'm lying down. Atlanta's restaurants are typically wi-fi hotspots, but there are times I wish I could have used it in, say, a movie theater or the Aquarium.

[Regulator7]

This is a neat idea though. A MiFi with 5GB of data is what, $60/month? Too bad that's not unlimited data, because if it were, with it + an iPod Touch + Skype you'd could almost just replace an iPhone. And with the (legal) ability to tether 4 other devices.

[TechnoMan475392]

And how much data do you think you get with your iPhone...?

[myles taylor]

That's pretty cool. Me and my brother-in-law set up something similar. We had a wireless router with a USB slot in it. We plugged the USB data card into the slot and then created a hotspot in the car that allowed everyone to get online. Of course, our speed varied with the strength of the signal where we were, but it works quite well for that. The iPod Touch idea into an iPhone is another cool application.

[cvaldes1831]

Since it happened both on your MiFi-connected iPod touch and your GPS-equipped iPhone, my guess is that the mapping feature was temporarily busted. It happens.

I live in the SF Bay Area, and yet a couple of times, I've been incorrectly mapped to someplace in Kansas (or another Midwest state).

GPS/online mapping isn't perfect. I've run into several bad data over the years: address not locatable, wrong town, driving directions through fire roads, cul-de-sacs, roads that don't connect, etc.

[Williame789]

If Apple let people connect the phone thru bluetooth people can tether the internet connection to the iPod Touch.

[merlefisher]

As far as as I know, the ipod touch bluetooth capabilities are limited to bluetooth audio devices, and the P2P connection used for some multiplayer games. File transfers and other common bluetooth tasks are not available on the ipod touch. Can anyone else verify this as well?

[ggroovin]

Thanks, Daniel. Have a great time on your roadtrip!

BTW- I went to search for your article & ran across a Windows & S60 application that's actually called www.WalkingHotspot.com. Also, I've been using www.joiku.com on my Nokia S60 3rd gen phone for a while now. It really drains the battery, but it's awesome to have it right on one's phone rather than have to have another device! (I've also found it to have a speedier connection than bluetooth tethering.)

Cheers,

@ggroovin

[kgsbca]

The devices may have thought you were in VA because of the IP address that Verizon assigned the MiFi . They often grab blocks of addresses and then arbitrarily map them to physical locations that are not anywhere near where they are being used. I'm guessing that when your iphone said you were in VA, it was using the wifi connection of the mifi. If it was using its integrated GPS or the ATT-assigned IP address to figure out its' location, that would be baffling.

[JohnFredC]

If you are in Aspen, you should go out to the Maroon Bells and hike up a ways. Beautiful!

[ggirton]

Maybe the WIFI hotspot was still turned on, and the iPhone was connecting through teh MiFi. Or I guess one might say through the YerFi.

[stevicus]

x2

[twitter_1963]

I use my 3G card in my Apple Mac and turn on Internet Sharing. I've set the Apple Mac with the same SSID/PWD as my home network so my Iphone and Touch just use WIFI - Verizon 3G/Wifi is way more reliable that AT&T 3G so in my hotel room or wherever my Apple is, that's my wfii.

[jvogt311]

Why would you need an iPhone and an Touch?

[merlefisher]

I've often wondered if that setup worked. I use internet sharing occasionally to share an ethernet connection, and the thought occurred to me that I should be able to use a 3G card and share that connection over wifi as well!

[pyxl8r]

I've had one of these units for about a month now, and I use it both on the train (where I can connect both my Macbook and my iPod Touch) and for vacations with the family (where they can all connect to the MiFi at once). It's great to have this little WiFi bubble around you, and the thing that sold me on it was the 5-users at once feature. That is what separates it from most other solutions. Yeah it's expensive, but now it's become an essential part of my tech life!

Not mentioned in the article is that it also comes with a little application (Mac/PC) that tracks your usage megabytes so that you don't go over your plan. Also not mentioned is that the unit is rechargable (either with an AC adaptor or, more slowly, when plugged into a USB port) for about 2-3 hours of untethered use.

BTW- it really is a HOT spot in another sense: it puts out some real HEAT in one's pocket! It gets very warm... almost uncomfortably so. This might be advantageous in the winter, but in the summertime, I've learned to keep it in my "man bag" or the wife's purse instead!!

[purcell429]

Definitely a cool idea... but you should just pick up a car charger for the iPhone instead.

[twitter_1963]

Purcell429. The car charger for the Iphone still keeps you on AT&T - and that sucks.

I already pay for unlimited plan for my Verizon 3G card and my Apple MAC is a WIFI Hotpsot with 3 clicks. What is the limit of the MIFI - I'm curious.

[DonJuan4565]

It gave you the wrong location, just because the device that is providing the wi-fi connection was located last time in that area by this company which name I don't remember, that has cars all over the US finding wi-fi hotspots gathering their unique info and storing them in a database with it's corresponding coordenates. Then the iPhone did not use the GPS feature, it did the same the iPod did because it had that wi-fi signal in range.

[tech_crazy]

Another useless article. An example of just another thing that can be done with the MiFi. Are you going to report on each and every device that has WiFi, paired with the MiFi?

And $20 for a meal is inexpensive?

[Anyuser2]

This is a neat idea though. A MiFi with 5GB of data is what, $60/month? Too bad that's not unlimited data, because if it were, with it + an iPod Touch + Skype you'd could almost just replace an iPhone. And with the (legal) ability to tether 4 other devices.
who the heck would want to pay $60 for 5 gb. I use 15 gb a day. This hotwpot is a joke. What if I wanted to watch videos all day, over caps. I don't think so about buying this thing until its unlimited. Then we'll talk.

[pyxl8r]

If you ARE watching videos all day, then obviously you have way more free time than most working folks do, and couldn't afford to spend a whole 2 bucks a day for the 5Gb plan anyway. This doesn't make the MiFi a "joke" just because Verizon isn't targeting your particular demographic. It's just not right for YOU, but that doesn't automatically mean it sucks!

The MiFi is definitely NOT meant to be one's sole source of Internet connectivity; it's a targeted device. I do agree that it'd be great if the plan were unlimited, but the reality here is that you become free from dependence on increasingly-rare free WiFi hotspots when away from home, or when your online access at work is limited/restricted. The MiFi allows me to create my own WiFi bubble wherever I go and share it with friends and family; no more, no less, and that makes it perfect for ME.

Yeah, it sucks that stuff costs money... I can only dream of day when I have the free time to consume 15Gb of content every day! ;-)

[mvarel02]

You can get the same Device on the Sprint network.

The Sprint device is IMHO better. It has built-in (accurate) SIRF III GPS with an app that plugs GPS coordinates into Google for mapping or searching. Also, you don't need to attach it first (by USB cable!!) to a computer to activate. It already comes activated! It also works better in rural OK (S of Tulsa) than the Verizon. (I tested both.) Chalk another one up to under-rated and unjustly maligned Sprint.